Japan
Intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda
Third meeting on Goals and TargetsStatement by Mr. Takeshi Osuga, Ambassador,
Deputy Director-General for International Cooperation and Global Issues
23 March 2015
Thank you, Mr. Co-facilitators, for organising the briefing this morning. Let me also thank the members of the Statistical Commission for their presentations as well as the preliminary paper on an indicator framework.
Regarding the indicators, I have three points.
First, Japan supports the development of a global indicator framework through an open, technical process under the Statistical Commission, which will run its course independently from our intergovernmental negotiation process. Obviously, there needs to be a feedback on the progress in the technical process from time to time to ensure transparency, but we should not intervene in the technical discussion. We should also respect the timeframe proposed by the statisticians as being necessary for developing a reasonable indicator framework.
Secondly, in relation to the targets and indicators, I would like to share the outcome of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction which was held in Sendai, Japan from 14 to 18 March and adopted Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030. 187 Member States that participated in the Conference agreed to seven global targets, which includes four targets related to DRR under the goal 11 of the OWG report but also three other targets. With regard to indicators, Member States agreed in the Framework document as follows.
Paragraph 50
“The Conference recommends to the General Assembly the establishment at its sixty-ninth session of an open-ended intergovernmental working group, comprised of experts nominated by Member States, … for the development of a set of possible indicators to measure global progress in the implementation of this framework in conjunction with the work of the inter-agency expert group on sustainable development indicators.”
Therefore, in the area of DRR, the work on indicators should theoretically proceed in coherence with the technical process under the Statistical Commission. The coherence of the work of Member States and of relevant agencies in different fora are of utmost importance.
My third and last point is in response to the request for political guidance by the Statistical Commission. Japan believes that the criteria for selecting indicators should be left to the consideration of our statisticians, and not to us. However, there are four principles that I would expect the technical process to follow.
a) the work should build on existing global indicators, especially those for MDGs;
b) the work should refrain from interfering or prejudging other intergovernmental negotiations, such as those conducted at WTO or UNFCCC;
c) the number of indicators should be limited to a manageable level; and
d) transparency should be maintained throughout the process, by means of virtual meetings and email communications, and by using limited resources efficiently.
Thank you very much.
Third meeting on Goals and TargetsStatement by Mr. Takeshi Osuga, Ambassador,
Deputy Director-General for International Cooperation and Global Issues
23 March 2015
Thank you, Mr. Co-facilitators, for organising the briefing this morning. Let me also thank the members of the Statistical Commission for their presentations as well as the preliminary paper on an indicator framework.
Regarding the indicators, I have three points.
First, Japan supports the development of a global indicator framework through an open, technical process under the Statistical Commission, which will run its course independently from our intergovernmental negotiation process. Obviously, there needs to be a feedback on the progress in the technical process from time to time to ensure transparency, but we should not intervene in the technical discussion. We should also respect the timeframe proposed by the statisticians as being necessary for developing a reasonable indicator framework.
Secondly, in relation to the targets and indicators, I would like to share the outcome of the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction which was held in Sendai, Japan from 14 to 18 March and adopted Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030. 187 Member States that participated in the Conference agreed to seven global targets, which includes four targets related to DRR under the goal 11 of the OWG report but also three other targets. With regard to indicators, Member States agreed in the Framework document as follows.
Paragraph 50
“The Conference recommends to the General Assembly the establishment at its sixty-ninth session of an open-ended intergovernmental working group, comprised of experts nominated by Member States, … for the development of a set of possible indicators to measure global progress in the implementation of this framework in conjunction with the work of the inter-agency expert group on sustainable development indicators.”
Therefore, in the area of DRR, the work on indicators should theoretically proceed in coherence with the technical process under the Statistical Commission. The coherence of the work of Member States and of relevant agencies in different fora are of utmost importance.
My third and last point is in response to the request for political guidance by the Statistical Commission. Japan believes that the criteria for selecting indicators should be left to the consideration of our statisticians, and not to us. However, there are four principles that I would expect the technical process to follow.
a) the work should build on existing global indicators, especially those for MDGs;
b) the work should refrain from interfering or prejudging other intergovernmental negotiations, such as those conducted at WTO or UNFCCC;
c) the number of indicators should be limited to a manageable level; and
d) transparency should be maintained throughout the process, by means of virtual meetings and email communications, and by using limited resources efficiently.
Thank you very much.
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